115. Embracing a Life of Purpose through the Power of Yes

In this heartfelt episode, I unfold the journey that led me to a thriving marketing career and financial independence, all beginning with a college assignment that blossomed into the viral blog "Drunken Disasters and Culinary Masters." And there's more: brace yourself for an inside scoop on a tantalizing, under-wraps project that’s sure to stir the pot.

But wait, there's a twist in the tale! Discover the mighty ripple effect of a simple 'yes'—one that catapulted me onto stages as a certified speaker and into the pages of Forbes. 

Cannot wait to see how God uses your yes. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

Hey, I'm Lemon. I am just like you, sister friend. Talk about stepping into that overflow that God has for us by becoming those ultimate Proverbs 31 women. Hey, I'm Lemon. I am just like you, sister friend. I knew God had something more in store for me, but I couldn't see a way out of the laundry piles and, frankly, I resented that. Proverbs 31 woman. How was I going to live up to the hype? That is until I found out how to really step into becoming this Proverbs 31 woman through leadership development. In this podcast, you're going to find financial freedom, leadership, growth and motivation so you'll be able to do all the things God has called you to do with ease and really step into that land of milk and honey.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Hi friends, welcome back to the Milk and Honey podcast. I'm your host, lemon Price, and today I wanted to talk about collaboration and just saying yes when you have no clue where things are actually going to lead. This is probably going to sound like such a broken record when I say this, but I want to talk about what happened when I just made some decisions that were 100% God-led. That didn't make sense to me at the time in which I made them, but what has transpired since. So, back in 2011, I had transferred schools right before I graduated from Coastal. That's a whole. It was not by choice, it's nothing I did. There was some things that shifted in my family personally, and, long story short, I ended up leaving my dream school, going to a school that I absolutely despised and I don't even tell people that's where I technically graduated from, because it is. I hated it. But because of that, the school required even though I only needed 30 credits right, that's what you take in a typical semester they required that I take. It was like 45 or 60. So I was going to take. It was going to take me a whole extra year to graduate. So this idea that I was going to save money by going to school in New Jersey as opposed to South Carolina wasn't actually true at all. But I digress. So, because of that, I was majoring in English, so I decided to minor in journalism. I was like that just seems like an easy fit, feels like a really simple way to boost my GPA, because they should go hand in hand. This should be simple.

Speaker 1: 2:38

I took online journalism in 2011 and, not knowing what that was, I had no clue. I had no interest in being a journalist, to be perfectly honest. But I took it, and 2011,. That meant blogging, like my teachers were, my professors were talking about Twitter and those like that. Those were the conversations we were having and so I had to start a blog. That was a requirement is that I start a blog.

Speaker 1: 3:05

And because I was 21 and I grew up in a tourist town, I thought to myself I'm going to do bar and restaurant reviews. Of course, doesn't that just make sense to do bar and restaurant reviews? And so that's what I did. I went around to restaurants and interviewed chefs and I interviewed bartenders and I reviewed food and drinks and service and all those kind of things. That's how I ended up in marketing, which, of course, I had no clue. That's what I was going to do, because my blog did really well.

Speaker 1: 3:35

My blog went viral. It had such a catchy name too. I called it Drunken Disasters and Culinary Masters. It was fun. It was such a fun blog. It was such a fun passion project. I loved it. I was doing video interviews. I was talking to Cape May Brewing Company they had just started the brewery and so I was interviewing them and it was fun. It was so fun. I loved it.

Speaker 1: 3:56

I loved everything about it, and because I grew up in a tourist town, the actual year-round population is small, and so everybody that I grew up with basically you got into a couple of fields. You were in hospitality, so you worked at hotels, restaurants, that sort of thing. You were in healthcare or education, real estate. There's not like an abundance of jobs. There was very clear career paths and this is what people did, and people tend to not stray from those kind of career paths, and so I'd never seen a blogger. I obviously it was 2011. I'd never seen anybody doing what I was doing, and so it went well. It went really well. I ended up getting comped almost everywhere I went in town for months. Everywhere I went, people were recognizing me, like restaurant owners and bar owners and stuff like that. They recognized me, and so my food was comped almost everywhere I went, which was super cool. I was like I feel so fancy, and so the blog did really well. It was shared a lot by other areas, cities, by other bloggers, because their people would travel to my hometown and so it was getting a lot of traction. Pinterest was new, all those kind of things were new, and so, again, I had no clue what I was getting into Because that blog did so well.

Speaker 1: 5:25

I was approaching graduation and so I was like what am I going to do? So I just started. I applied at teaching jobs, I applied at marketing agencies, I applied all kinds of places. The first place that called me for an interview was in Delaware. I was in New Jersey not a big commute, it was like an hour so I went to this interview boutique PR agency in a very small town in Delaware. Delaware is small to begin with, and it went really well, it went super well, and they called me a few days later, offered me the job. So I was working full time at this PR agency while I was still going to school. I hadn't graduated yet. I think I still had two months of school left and thankfully, because I had only two months of school left, I was only going to class two days a week. And so two days a week I was at school. Three days a week I was in the office, which was great Love that. I was living my best life doing that. My team and I. We had won some international marketing awards.

Speaker 1: 6:32

Things were really well for my first year, and so then, because I was in PR, I wanted to learn the journalism side. I'm like I want to see what it's like on the other side of the fence. So I started freelancing for a newspaper in my hometown, ended up working there full time as their features coordinator and handing basically all the fun stuff of the newspaper, which again was super fun. I loved that. That is what I got to do, but again, I had no clue that is how my journey was going to go, and so I do that for a few years.

Speaker 1: 7:01

I moved to Pennsylvania. I really stayed in the tri-state area for a few years, for probably, I'm going to say like a solid seven years. I was up in that whole area which no offense to anybody up there but I truly detested it up there. And it is so interesting how my journey unfolds when I say yes to opportunity and I have no clue where it's going to go. And so I moved to Pennsylvania. I take a part-time job at another marketing agency in 2015. And it is 2024 and they are still a client of mine, a consistent marketing client of mine that I've had for years, which is incredible. Again, how could I know that doing that job in 2015 would still be paying me nine years later. This is where it gets really fun.

Speaker 1: 7:55

So, from that job in Pennsylvania, I ended up as the chief marketing officer, at just 26 years old, for a fintech company so financial technology and I was 26 at a corner office and right outside of Philly, yeah, and was crushing it. I was doing well. I was there for about a year and a half, fixed a lot of problems with the company, made them profitable. It was a great time. And then I felt like I had peaked, because here I am Now I'm 27. I'm in the C-suite. I've done a lot of things. People don't usually get to the C-suite until they're in their 40s, and so I was a full decade and a half ahead in my career, and so that's when I decided I ran this little side hustle when I was doing marketing blog reviews of restaurants and things. So I'm just going to take all the skills that I've acquired over the last. What would it be? Six years and I'm just going to start my own agency.

Speaker 1: 8:56

And 2018, I made a lot of big decisions that I didn't understand what I was doing. When I made the decision right, god obviously had a plan, and so in 2018, I had filed for divorce from my first husband. That's a whole that could get its own episode talking about divorce and shame in the church and all kinds of things. So I filed a divorce with my husband, I start my marketing agency, I move from the tri-state area back down to Georgia because I love the South and I knew I was meant to be here. And so I do all of these things at one time. And it was amazing. I had incredible opportunity.

Speaker 1: 9:37

I was getting ready to go for six weeks down to Bogota and Cartagena with a client. I was traveling. I was traveling so much when I first started my agency that I actually knew TSA. Tsa and I were friends because I was traveling so much. It was the time of my life. I was poolside every day and I learned a lot about running my own business, about working with people, and met my now husband during that time. And, of course, things had to shift because he was he's like a custodial parent of two elementary school kids, which now I can't believe it the oldest he's already going into middle school. We just have three weeks left of elementary school, which is crazy. I cannot believe that because he was in kindergarten when my husband and I got married and now we're prepping for middle school. Already.

Speaker 1: 10:32

There have been just some incredible things have happened, and in 2021, I partnered with someone. I thought we were aligned and things were good. I had a steady paycheck, I had a team of people. I felt like I was at the top of my game, but also reaching a burnout point. It wasn't. The vibe was not there. So in 2020, we partnered and then, at the end of 2021, I left that partnership. There was a lot of things going on, personally, professionally, that just weren't. It wasn't it, and so I left my agency in the end of 2021.

Speaker 1: 11:14

And so I was like what am I going to do now? That was our steady stream of income. I had no clue what I was going to do, and so I was like, again, I'm just going to go back to how I started in 2011. I'm going to go back to blogging, except now I'm a believer and now I'm in seminary and I'm learning and I'm doing things. I've had all of these shifts happen, so I'm like I'm just going to go write about them, and that's what I did, and I so.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Then I got emails from people saying that they couldn't parent their children like I do because they didn't go to seminary or they didn't understand scripture like I do because they didn't go to seminary and it felt like there was a barrier to entry and I didn't appreciate it. And I know that's how I felt, like I felt like there was a barrier to entry because I didn't grow up in the church and so I felt like I actually didn't know anything, which is also a side note really cool now because our 12-year-old he consistently will come. Like the other night we were I was making a joke about how he has a favorite dog in our house and he goes does God have a favorite? And I jokingly said probably Jesus. Right, like wouldn't Jesus be his favorite? And he comes in and gives me a full explanation of the Trinity and how, like God's favorite can't be himself, and he's like that's just weird. And I was like, okay, my guy, thank you. And then he gets straight in the car explaining who Enoch is and like all this stuff to his brother. I'm like this is, it's so cool. This is not conversations I was having at 12 years old at all, and so it's cool to see how the barrier to entry it's different, right, it's just different.

Speaker 1: 12:52

And this is what I do full-time, it's what my husband's trying to do full-time, and so, anyway, with that being said, I felt like there was a gap, there were things that the church wasn't doing, and so I'm like I've got to step in and do something. So I started teaching courses, because this is just something that I am used to doing. I'm going to teach courses and I start teaching courses on how to actually read your Bible, how to study the Bible like a scholar, with it being accessible to moms. I catered it to moms because I knew your schedule is busy, I get it, and so I did that and it was amazing and I loved it and I had the time of my life teaching it.

Speaker 1: 13:36

I did this really fun beta round and that is when Molly, who's been on the podcast before. She was on it in the very beginning and, like our launch of the podcast a year and a half ago, and I just did an episode with her a few months ago, so go check out an episode of Molly. So Molly reaches out to me and she says hey, it's so great to meet you. I'd love to talk about your course. Is it something you'd want to contribute to our community? And I'm like probably not. To be honest, I had just gotten out of a bad partnership six months earlier. I'm like not even really. This was in April of 2022. So it had only been four months. And so I'm like, probably not.

Speaker 1: 14:12

And I was like I just my husband and I, we talked about this on the episode together, but I really didn't want to. I just didn't want to. I didn't like the industry, I didn't want to partner with somebody, I didn't want to put my eggs into somebody else's basket, and yet God was like this is where you need to be, this is it. I told my husband the same thing. So I say yes to this opportunity that I have now put my course in there and it had been the biggest game changer in my entire life. Biggest game changer in my entire life. And I say that because, again, you just you never know what's possible. Here's what I will say Since I said yes to doing that, I have grown exponentially.

Speaker 1: 14:53

I've become a certified speaker. I am about to be a four-time certified Radiant leader. I am a certified Radiant leadership and life coach through ICF, which is amazing. I have been in Forbes twice. I have launched this podcast and had the most incredible conversation. I am a top leader at Girl Power Alliance, which is rebranding to Kingdom Alliance if you see it anywhere because we have men in it.

Speaker 1: 15:18

My husband has taken the Kingdom Leadership Academy, so Radiant Leadership Academy is getting a rebrand, totally shifted his perspective. He now knows what he's called to do with his life and it's really wild how we're seeing the fruits of that already happen. We've already helped a couple of people with things that he knows he's called to do and they're already getting results within a week. They're having results that they've waited years for. And so I know he's doing the thing that he's supposed to do and that our skill set combined can do what he needs to do, and so it's incredible to see how that is happening. Maya just said Oliver the oldest he's given us theology lessons on a regular basis. And again, just a complete shift.

Speaker 1: 16:01

And then I've been having this really fun conversation with Michelle Schaefer, the owner. She just did episode 90. We did a bonus episode because she's so passionate about what we're doing. Her and I have had a very similar dream for a very long time, and somebody that joined Girl Power Alliance has the exact skill set that is needed to bring that dream to fruition. I can't say anything else about it. We made people sign NDAs. There's a really fun project that I'm working on with the founder, and it's really cool to work on this project in that capacity and to just be here for these big decisions that are being made and seeing a dream that I've had since the fourth grade coming to fruition, like this year it is going to come to fruition.

Speaker 1: 16:51

I'm doing something that I have wanted to do for a very long time and I had no idea it was possible, and so I know this whole episode has been a long story of the last decade or so of my life, but I hope what you take from it is that you never know what's on the other side of your yes. You never know how God is going to use you. You never know how God is going to use the thing that you say yes to. I just talked to somebody yesterday. She said that she's been praying about something and God told her let your yay be yay and your nay be nay. Whatever your yes is, go all in on that yes, whatever it is. Whatever your yes is, go all in on that yes, whatever it is. If I've put an opportunity in front of you, then say yes and go all in on that yes, which I think is incredible. Let your yes be yes and see what God does with it. That is what I want you to take from this.

Speaker 1: 17:46

If God has put something in front of you, let your yes be a yes, let go all in on it, and if he's shut the door on something, then walk away peacefully, knowing there's a reason he shut the door on that opportunity, that experience, whatever it is like. There's a reason and I feel like I want to. There could be other reasons why that door got shut and I want to touch on that next week. I want to talk about this whole idea of the courts of heaven and just a profound experience that we've had already, but what I want to say is I want to encourage you to go all in on whatever it is God's called you to do. Maybe there's something he's asked you to do when you're sitting on the fence about it. I want you to get off the fence about it. Commit to that today, that you're going to get off the fence about whatever it is that he has called you to do, and so I hope this episode I know it was a lot of my story and you've probably heard it. If you've listened to any episode, you've probably heard some of my story. But I really want to encourage you to again let your yes, yes, go all in on the thing God has called you to do. Make that decision today, and so get excited for Wednesday's episode.

Speaker 1: 18:54

I have my friend Dahlia coming on. We're going to talk about chickens. I know that sounds like a crazy idea we're going to talk about chickens, but what we're going to talk about I'm really excited is we're talking about because, again, I think you can be the ultimate Proverbs 31 woman through leadership development, and part of that development is also knowing what is going into your body, what's in your food. You also get to lead and steward in that area, and so her and I have a very interesting conversation. It is not about chicken keeping, necessarily. It is a very interesting conversation. It's not at all where we thought the conversation was going to go, but it was definitely a worthwhile conversation. So tune into that on the Wednesday and I will see you then. Bye, friend.

Speaker 1: 19:38

Hey friend, what a joy it has been to share today's journey with you. If you found a spark of inspiration or a nugget of wisdom that resonated. Would you bless someone else by sharing this episode with them? It could be the encouragement they need to step into their purpose and calling. Also, if you could spare a moment to leave a review, it would mean the world to me. I really appreciate your feedback and it really helps our community grow. Remember, the road to discovering God's call for you isn't one you have to walk alone. So join me again next Monday for another episode where we'll continue to explore the depths of leadership and the heights of our heavenly calling. Until then, keep seeking, keep growing and keep trusting in His plan. God bless you and I'll catch you on the flip side. Bye, friend.